R113011
City Council Meeting: October 27, 2020 Santa Monica, California
RESOLUTION NUMBER 11301 (CCS)
(City Council Series)
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
SANTA MONICA ADOPTING CREDIT CARD AND DEBIT CARD COVENIENCE FEES
WHEREAS, the City has previously authorized the use of credit cards and debit
cards to pay for City services, administrative citations, utilities, parking citations,
recreation activities, and other transactions (collectively, “Credit Card Payments”); and
WHEREAS, the City uses several merchant processing vendors to process Credit
Card Payments; and
WHEREAS, there are certain transactional costs associated with Credit Card
Payments; and
WHEREAS, the transactional costs associated with Credit Card Payments vary
depending on the vendor, payment amount, payment purpose, and other factors; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to Government Code section 6159(h), the City may impose
charges for the transactional costs associated with the Credit Card Payments
(“Convenience Fees”); and
WHEREAS, pursuant to Government Code section 6159(h), the City may impose
Convenience Fees as long as the charges do not exceed the costs incurred by the City
in providing for Credit Card Payments; and
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WHEREAS, the proposed Convenience Fees are at or below the City’s actual
costs in providing for Credit Card Payments; and
WHEREAS, the proposed Convenience Fees are designed to pass the merchant
processing fees that the City would otherwise incur to the payor; and
WHEREAS, the proposed Convenience Fees will not be retained by the City; and
WHEREAS, as a result of statewide and county public health orders in response
to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of Credit Card Payments has increased for non-
parking-related payments; and
WHEREAS, the proposed Convenience Fees are consistent with the City’s policy
of full cost recovery for the costs of business as reflected in the FY 2019-2021 Adopted
Budget; and
WHEREAS, the City incurs certain transactional costs by accepting payment by
electronic check (“E-check Payments”); and
WHEREAS, the City will continue to absorb the transactional costs for E-check
Payments to provide residents and customers with an alternative electronic payment
method without incurring any Convenience Fees; and
WHEREAS, the City will continue to absorb the transactional costs for parking-
related Credit Card Payments (other than parking citations); and
WHEREAS, in accordance with Government Code section 66018, the City Council
called a public hearing for October 27, 2020, for the purpose of receiving public comments
to the proposed Convenience Fees, and notice of the public hearing was given by
publication in a newspaper of general circulation within the City once a week for two
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weeks commencing at least 10 days prior to the public hearing, with at least 5 days
intervening between the first and last publication; and
WHEREAS, on October 27, 2020, at the time and place set for the public hearing,
the City Council heard and considered all oral and written presentations and comments
made regarding the proposed Convenience Fees; and
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
DOES RESOLVE AND PROCLAIM AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The City Council called a public hearing on October 27, 2020 for the
purpose of receiving public comments to the proposed Convenience Fees. Notice of the
public hearing was given by publication in a newspaper of general circulation within the
City once a week for two weeks commencing at least 10 days prior to the public hearing,
with at least 5 days intervening between the first and last publication.
SECTION 2. Pursuant to Government Code section 6159(h)(1), the City Council
approves Convenience Fees for Credit Card Payments as set forth below:
Description Vendor Fee Unit
Administrative Citations DataTicket $3.50 per transaction
Utilities Paymentus $2.95 per transaction
Parking Citations Conduent $1.00 per transaction
Recreation Activities ActiveNet 2.95% percentage of the transaction
Mobility/Transportation Demand CityGrows 2.95%
percentage of the transaction
All Other Non-Parking-Related Payments
Paymentus 2.95% percentage of the transaction
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SECTION 3.The City Council finds and determines that the Convenience Fees
approved above do not exceed the actual transactional costs incurred by the City in
providing for Credit Card Payments.
SECTION 4. The City Manager and Director of Finance are hereby authorized to
take all actions necessary to implement and collect the Convenience Fees.
SECTION 5. If any section, subsection, clause or phrase in this resolution is for
any reason held invalid, the validity of the remainder of this resolution shall not be affected
thereby. The City Council hereby declares that it would have passed this resolution and
each section, subsection, sentence, clause, clause, or phrase thereof, irrespective of the
fact that one or more sections, subsections, sentences, clauses, or phrase thereof be
held invalid.
SECTION 6.The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this Resolution, and
thenceforth and thereafter the same shall be in full force and effect.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
_________________________
GEORGE S. CARDONA
Interim City Attorney
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Adopted and approved this 27th day of October 2020.
__________________________
Kevin McKeown, Mayor
I, Denise Anderson-Warren, City Clerk of the City of Santa Monica, do
hereby certify that Resolution No. 11301 (CCS) was duly adopted at a meeting of
the Santa Monica City Council held on the 27th day of October 2020, by the
following vote:
AYES: Councilmembers Davis, Himmelrich, Jara, McCowan, Winterer,
Mayor Pro Tem O’Day, Mayor McKeown
NOES: None
ABSENT: None
ATTEST:
_____________________________________
Denise Anderson-Warren, City Clerk
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